Just "Tri" ... for her!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm writing to you, because I really need your help with my fundraising initiative. 

In April of next year, I will be doing an Ironman 70.3 [1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, a 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and a 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run] in Galveston, Texas to raise awareness and funding for SOLFA (Solidarité Femmes Africaines) or Solidarity with African Women, an international non-profit organisation that focuses upon obstetric fistulas, one of the most serious injuries of childbirth and a consequence of lack of access to emergency obstetric care. SOLFA's focus is not only upon repairing fistulas, but also importantly upon prevention, by building shelters for pregnancies at risk, helping to improve the health system, training of local expertise and education in the local villages.

This past April, when I was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I had the opportunity to personally meet the local team caring for females with fistulas, along with the physicians here in Belgium who have set up this organisation, "in their spare time" to make a difference, and I could not have been more inspired.

My goal is to support the surgery of 70 women and girls (1 per each mile of the grueling 70.3 mile Ironman course). One surgery costs 250 Euros, thus I plan to raise 17,500 Euros in total.

Would you please support me in this effort? Every donation helps, no matter whether it's big or small.

Emel Given